PRESENCE

Clement Cooper
PRESENCE

Photographs: Clement Cooper

Text: Clement Cooper

Publisher: Cornerhouse Publications & Clément Cooper

80 pages

Year: 1988

Price: 150 €

Comments: Illustrated softcover, 23 x 30 cm, b&w photographs. Design by Christopher Lord. In very good condition.

Clement Cooper was born in Manchester in 1965 and brought up in the predominantly Black and Asian communities of Moss Side and Longsight.

At the age of 17 he acquired his first camera, given to him by a teacher at school. With a growing awareness of what the camera could do and concern with issues of Black consciousness he became increasingly interested in looking at people, and in particular his own community within Manchester.

For the past three years he has been photographing the Afro-Caribbean communities of Moss Side and Longsight, focussing particularly on youth and the roles of the church and the pub. His concern is to ensure realistic and honest representation. It is his view that the media and general opinion hold a picture of these communities as hostile, directionless, passive and illiterate.

It is these cliches which Clement seeks to counter in his photographs. While not disguising the fact that poverty, aggression and despair do exist he seeks to affirm the dignity, vitality, resilience and spirit which he sees as ever present, both in the individuals and their community.